Franklin's Apprentice
The Benjamin Franklin Fact and Fiction Forum
by Laurie Brooks
This Forum is meant to immediately follow the play. It extends the life of the play and challenges the audience to further explore history and storytelling. The tone is lighthearted and fun.
Applause. Actors take their places on the stage. Thunder. House lights up. Spencer appears.
SPENCER
Thank you. Thank you, ladies and Gentlemen. I hope you enjoyed our entertainment. And now, I invite you to witness another wonder, never before seen on any stage. I present to you. The Benjamin Franklin Fact and Fiction Forum.
ACTORS
(To the audience.) Ooooo….
SPENCER
In the story you have just seen there are many documented facts about Franklin and his world, but there are also fictions, elements that are not true. Your task is to decide which is which. We will present to you a series of statements that are either fact or fiction. As you hear each statement, you will stand (Actors stand.) if you think the statement is true and stay seated (Actors sit.) if you think it is imagined. Do not be swayed by others, my friends, they may not know more that you do… and may very well know even less. Listen carefully, for we will try to trick you! Are you prepared?
ACTORS
YES!
SPENCER
Then we shall begin! May we have the first statement! Franklin?
SPENCER indicates FRANKLIN.
FRANKLIN
The steeple experiment was actually never performed because it was thought to be too dangerous. Fact or fiction?
SPENCER
Stand if you think that’s a fact. Stay seated if you think it’s fiction.
Audience stand or sits.
FRANKLIN
Fiction! I never performed the steeple experiment because I was waiting for Christ Church steeple to be finished. However, the experiment was performed in Russia and the man was killed!
SPENCER
Sally?
SALLY
I was as fascinated by science as my father and when he created the Academy of Philadelphia, that later became the University of Pennsylvania, he made a provision for girls to be educated alongside boys. Fact or fiction?
The Audience stands or sits.
SALLY
Fiction. In fact the Academy was for boys only. There was no school for girls at all. Girls were educated at home.
SPENCER
William?
WILLIAM
My father and I were at odds for most of our lives and later, after I became Governor of New Jersey, we did not speak to each other for many years. Fact or fiction?
Audience stands or sits.
WILLIAM
Fact. And, during the Revolutionary War, I was a loyalist, faithful to the King of England, and my father was a patriot who believed America should govern herself.
FRANKLIN
Indeed. I was one of the authors of the Declaration of Independence, but not the actual writer of it because others thought I was too opinionated. (To the audience.) I don’t think I’m too opinionated, do you? Do you?
DEBBIE
They know you too well.
SPENCER indicates FRANKLIN.
FRANKLIN
We shall see. I was the only founding father never to have owned slaves. Fact or Fiction?
Audience response.
FRANKLIN
Fiction! Debbie and I owned two household slaves but later freed them. By the 1780’s, I was convinced that slavery was evil and must be stopped. Along with the Philadelphia Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, I helped to create a plan for the emancipation and education of slaves and their children.
SPENCER
John?
JOHN
Apprenticeships in the mid-1740’s usually began at age 18 and lasted for four years. Fact or fiction?
Audience response.
JOHN
Fiction! Actually, apprenticeships often began as young as ten years old and lasted for at least seven years. Apprentices had to sign a contract in which they agreed not to play cards, get married, go to plays and, under all circumstances, obey their master.
FRANKLIN
My brother often beat me for being willful, which was true, but it served me well later in life that I followed my instincts.
SPENCER
Debbie?
DEBBIE
My husband built many useful inventions - lightning rods, the stove, bifocal glasses, and the first hospital in America. The money he made from these inventions allowed us to live comfortably all our lives. Fact or fiction?
Audience response.
DEBBIE
Fiction! We never made any money from Franklin’s inventions.
FRANKLIN
“The most acceptable service to God is doing good to man.”
DEBBIE
Yes, dear.
SPENCER
Reverend?
RICKERSLEY
During the 1740’s, of the people of Philadelphia believed that lightning was an expression of God’s anger and could only be prevented by ringing church bells. Fact or fiction?
Audience response.
RICKERSLEY
Fact! Even after Franklin was awarded the Royal Society’s prestigious Copley Medal for scientific discovery, many of us still considered his experiments dangerous to his soul and ridiculed him for his ideas about lightning rods.
FRANKLIN
Never mind that now. I convinced the good citizens of Philadelphia with determination and perseverance. I knew I was right. Eventually, even your church was safe from lightning, Reverend.
RICKERSLEY
God in his mercy has allowed it to remain standing, Franklin.
Thunder.
FRANKLIN
And all of us, as well.
SPENCER
And now I thank you one and all for taking part in our Benjamin Franklin Fact and Fiction Forum.
FRANKLIN
May I make a final comment, sir?
SPENCER
It is time to draw our event to its close, sir.
FRANKLIN
Surely you can spare a moment for a last thought?
SPENCER
A brief thought, sir.
FRANKLIN
Let us all explore and celebrate history, its facts and its imagined moments told from many points of view. Who owns history? We all do. Go now and tell your own stories. History is waiting to be created. See that you make the most of it.
Thunder. The actors step out of role and take their bows.
END FORUM
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